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ocPortal Tutorial: Creating an economical reward system for members via points

Written by Chris Graham, ocProducts
Thumbnail: A logged-in member may see their points from the login block

A logged-in member may see their points from the login block
{!DOC_POINTS}


Table of contents

  1. ocPortal Tutorial: Creating an economical reward system for members via points
    1. Earning points
      1. A note about how points are calculated
    2. Gift points
    3. The Point Store
      1. Flagrant text
      2. E-mail accounts and the Point Store
        1. For Plesk users
        2. For Ensim users
        3. For cPanel users
    4. Other economy tie-ins
      1. ocWorld
      2. Downloads
      3. The real world
    5. Rank in OCF
    6. The leader-board
    7. See also

Earning points

Thumbnail: The points profile page for a member

The points profile page for a member
There are many ways to earn points in ocPortal. You may not wish to tell your members the precise details for these, in order to avoid abuse and unbalanced member activity, although of course they could educate themselves by reading this document.
Methods of earning points include:
  • Joining
  • Voting in a poll
  • Rating content
  • Submitting various forms of content
  • Posting on the forum
  • Being given them (this is described in a later section)
  • Earning them from selling a download (this is described in a later section)
  • Earning them in the ocWorld add-on (this is described in a later section)
Most methods of earning points may be altered in the configuration, so that the number of points earned from various activities is appropriate for your web site.

A note about how points are calculated

Thumbnail: Configuring the points balance

Configuring the points balance
The number of points a member has is not stored in any place, so is not directly editable. Instead, a members points is dynamically calculated, according to various statistics. You may alter the number of points a member has by viewing their points profile and using either the 'charge' or 'give' features (both of which accept negative values for members of staff). The reason points are calculated in this way is that the forum driver system means that ocPortal has no way of determining when a member makes a forum post (the forum does not tell ocPortal, as it is often a third-party piece of software). The main ramification of this is that if posts are deleted, the point count goes backwards for the members with deleted posts: ocProducts, however, considers this a feature (deleting spam automatically will reverse the point count, at least on robust forums where post count is automatically adjusted upon moderation), and considers it a bad idea to delete posts and topics from a forum unless they should never have existed. We consider it the enemy of historical record (both short and long term) to delete topics, and the reasons for doing it are few, because text generally takes up a trivial amount of space, databases are designed to deal with unconceivable amounts of data, and the topics can be just as easily moved to a hidden archive forum if they 'get in the way'.

Gift points

Important note

Gift points are not exactly like payment, because it doesn't detract from your own point count to give points, it detracts from your gift point count. Members have a quota of gift points, to allocate as they see fit: if they run out, it simply means that they can't give any more for a while.
Gift points allow members to reward each other. Like money can be used to pay someone, so can gift points, based on whatever they value. This economical situation is very important, and essentially capitalism is embodied, such that people go hunting for work that is valued most highly in order to get high returns of points. Reasons for giving gift points include:
  • Pseudo-payment for a service rendered
  • A prize for winning a competition
  • A sign of appreciation for produce a high quality product that benefits the community

Thumbnail: Gift transactions should be monitored so as to pick up on cheating (mutual giving for example)

Gift transactions should be monitored so as to pick up on cheating (mutual giving for example)
Thumbnail: Those who give may get rewarded by the system (this encourages an active community)

Those who give may get rewarded by the system (this encourages an active community)
Gift points are useless unless spent, so the only advantage to hoarding them is to give a large amount in some kind of special situation being awaited; once given, the gift point receiver has the total added to their actual point count. Obviously members could abuse this, by giving points to each other in some form of reciprocal arrangement: this is why there is an admin interface to monitor all gift transactions for fraud.

Staff may give any number of points to reward members, such that they can have a negative number of gift points. Staff can also give a negative charge to members, which is a very similar thing technically, but in terms of interpretation, can be considered more like a refund that a gift.




The Point Store

The Point Store provides a number of products/services that members can access using points, including:
  • POP3 email accounts, and upgrades
    • staff define which email domains members may purchase addresses on
    • staff must set up the email accounts manually after they are purchased/upgrades
  • email Forwarding accounts, and updates
    • staff define which email domains members may purchase addresses on
    • staff must set up the email accounts manually after they are purchased/upgrades
  • flagrant text (for members to leave a memssage on the website)
  • banners, and upgrades
  • gambling (on average, members lose out on points when they try and gamble them)
  • buying access
    • staff set up what permissions may be bought, how long they last for, and how much they cost
  • custom product
    • staff set up custom products by description and cost, then members may buy them
    • staff must manually dispatch custom product, whatever it is
  • name highlighting (OCF only)
  • topic pinning (OCF only)

Thumbnail: Configuring the Point Store

Configuring the Point Store
{!DOC_POINT_STORE}
Thumbnail: Configuring the Point Store's prices

Configuring the Point Store's prices
Thumbnail: The Point Store shop-front

The Point Store shop-front



When a member buys something from the point store, the staff are informed of it via e-mail of appropriate details. The exception to this is that flagrant text is simply placed in a queue that, if enabled, the staff are expected to keep a hold on manually).

There is a module in the Admin Zone for sales inventory management. It should be used to cancel purchases, such as an e-mail address bought up a user that is no longer valid: cancelling such a purchase allows a re-purchase at a later date (only one address of each e-mail address type is allowed per-user). Refunds must manually be given through the points system if points have been already charged by the point of cancellation.

Flagrant text

{!DOC_FLAGRANT}

Thumbnail: Managing flagrant text messages in the queue

Managing flagrant text messages in the queue
Thumbnail: Adding a flagrant text message from the Admin Zone

Adding a flagrant text message from the Admin Zone
Thumbnail: Configuring the default flagrant text

Configuring the default flagrant text
Thumbnail: If ocPortal is not registered, the 'unregistered' notice may be displayed instead of the default flagrant text

If ocPortal is not registered, the 'unregistered' notice may be displayed instead of the default flagrant text
Thumbnail: The flagrant text is shown in this space

The flagrant text is shown in this space















E-mail accounts and the Point Store

If e-mail accounts are sold through the Point-Store, ocPortal cannot create them itself. Instead, it has to send out e-mail notifications to the site staff address, which includes details of how to add them. The method of addition is different for different systems, so the Point-Store configuration defines 3 URLs that can be set according to your server.

Example URLs follow for different server control-panel software…

For Plesk users

The mail add address (POP3 and forwarding) is:
https://{DOMAIN}:8443/domains/mail/mail_name_preferences.php?mn_id=0&previous_page=mail_names
Forwarders are added through adding a mail address, and then specifying a forwarder for it.

We're not sure if it is currently possible to manage POP3 quota with Plesk.

For Ensim users

The POP3 add address is:
http://{DOMAIN}/Site/email_users_add.htm

The forwarding add address is:
http://{DOMAIN}/Site/emal_forward.htm
We're not sure if it is currently possible to manage POP3 quota with Ensim.

For cPanel users

The POP3 add address is:
http://{DOMAIN}:2082/frontend/x/mail/addpop2.html

The forwarding add address is:
http://{DOMAIN}:2082/frontend/x/mail/addfwd.html

The POP3 quota change address is:
http://{DOMAIN}:2082/frontend/x/mail/pops.html

Other economy tie-ins

Important note

There is a distinction between the point count for points available for spending, and the point count for the total points ever earned (which contributes to rank and leader-board position). This will usually be made clear, but sometimes circumstance will dictate what is the appropriate meaning.

ocWorld

ocWorld is a very large add-on for ocPortal, made by ocProducts in a semi-official capacity. It is not included with the main release as it is totally inappropriate for non-community sites, and hence would be consider as 'bloat' (an excessive feature that gets in the way and causes undue complexity and confusion) by most.

ocWorld is essentially a game, where members may move in, interact with, and create, a limitless world of rooms, split across multiple themed 'realms'. It can be used to create puzzles, adventures, board games, simulations, and with imagination, many other things.

Points are at the very core of ocWorld, and are used in two ways:
  • It costs points (according to a configurable price) to add content to ocWorld. Of course, members may try and redeem these points by asking members to give gift points back to them, but this feature prevents abuse and limits the need for moderation.
  • Members may add items to the system, and then sell these items to other members. An example of this being used, is for the controller of a realm used for a 'quest' to add a 'healthy' item into the system: those with more points have a higher chance of surviving to the end of the quest, as they can heal themselves.

The ocWorld system is very simple, yet via the small set of options available, presents amazing possibilities.

Downloads

Members may submit downloads that cost points to download. Depending on how the submitter configures the download, these points may end up with that submitter, or thrown away.
This system allows:
  • staff to artificially limited access, to ensure members participate before they can use site resources.
  • members to earn points to compensate themselves for the work contained within a download.

The real world

A small number of sites may wish to set up a payment system (outside of the scope of ocPortal, at the time of writing), to allow members to exchange points for real money, or tangible products or services. Sites that may wish to do this are likely to be sites where the earning of points has a real affect on business goals, such that real-world reimbursement may be appropriate; for example, on a site where members collaborate on art for a published catalogue.

Alternatively, and perhaps more popularly, sites may allow members to exchange real money, for points (again, outside the scope of ocPortal, at the time of writing). Hence web-masters could earn money from their more enthusiastic members, and those members could elevate themselves on the website.

Rank in OCF

OCF has a user-group system that allows automated progression from one user-group to another, according to point count. This is configured by default such that the user-group rank images for the user-groups involved imply a rising rank.

The 'status symbol' of rank is an incentive for members to earn points (hence contributing to the site and community), but permissions may also be configured such as to give permission according to rank, simply by assigning the permissions differently for different user-groups.

The leader-board

Thumbnail: The points leader-board

The points leader-board
The leader-board is a block, and corresponding archive viewing module, for the displaying of the top point holders for a week. Like rank, this is another incentive for members to earn points.
Note that the leader-board is not entirely accurate, as it actually only calculates the point count of top post count holders, and orders according to this; the reason for this is that, as explained earlier, point count is not actually stored, and calculating it for all members simultaneously would not be efficient. This is unlikely to be noticed, however, because more post count holders are chosen for point calculation than point holders shown, hence a buffer zone exists to reduce the chance of error.








Concepts

points
Points are accumulated by various means and illustrate rank and provide spending power (currency)
rank
Rank is determined by the total of points ever earned, and is a status symbol
Gift points
Gift points are automatically accumulated over time and exist only as gifts to give to other members, where they translate to real points
Point Store
The point store allows conversion of points into items such as community e-mail accounts
leader-board
The point leader-board shows the top point holders, and is drawn up on a weekly basis
ocWorld
An ocPortal add-on that provides a simple virtual world environment to interact in; points are the currency of ocWorld

See also